Composite Reliability and Standard Errors of Measurement for a Seven-Subtest Short Form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised

The composite reliability and standard errors of measurement were computed for prorated Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQ scores derived from a seven-subtest short form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) proposed by Ward (1990). The results indicate that this short form provides IQ scores that are as reliable as the complete WAIS-R. Together with previous findings that this short form has better concurrent validity than other short forms, the present findings justify substituting it for the complete WAIS-R in most clinical and research applications. The advantages of and objections to using short forms of the WAIS-R are discussed.